Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

24 reviews

kinddog2073's review

adventurous dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Read this because I loved the film based on it that came out a few years ago and have rewatched it several times. I didn't know much of what to expect going in, but had read Hummingbird Salamander a few months ago and found that there was much to recognise in the tone and attitude of the narrator towards the reader. Vandermeer likes narrators that hold back information, at least between these two novels. This book landed better than Hummingbird Salamander for me, mostly due to it being far less hopelessly nihilistic. I suppose Vandermeer might be feeling a bit less hopeful about climate crisis recently... can't blame him for that really.

The themes in this book felt a lot more relatable to me, regarding assimilation and especially guardedness in relationships. Hummingbird Salamander had far fewer relatable elements in it for me, perhaps aside from the paranoia of the narrator as a security researcher.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Suicide

Minor: Alcohol, Gun violence, and Animal death

sir_willyam's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Psychological horror juxtaposed next to beautiful natural scenery, Annihilation focuses on the willfulness behind self-destruction, and the resistance of healing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide attempt, Cancer, Violence, Sexual content, Animal death, Terminal illness, and Murder

emilycruz1016's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Cancer, Chronic illness, Animal death, Blood, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

scifi_rat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Cancer, and Self harm

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Mental illness, Body horror, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Cancer, Alcohol, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Blood, Infidelity, Animal death, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

Minor: Child death and Physical abuse

Further warning for descriptions of drowning, and a very brief mention of child-on-child sexual abuse.

winter_light's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death and Terminal illness

moonytoast's review

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

in conclusion: what the actual fuck???????

ok i'm officially hooked by this brilliantly crafted story and the unnerving, preternatural mystery of Area X and all the weird stuff with the Tower. i don't read a lot of sci-fi/horror or books that have a "mystery box"-esque plot, but this has singlehandedly won me over to the point i feel the intense urge to immediately read all of jeff vandermeer's backlist of fiction books

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Murder, Blood, and Gun violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Violence

Minor: Suicide attempt and Suicide

ixchel_anima's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I haven't finished a book this quickly in years, and I can't wait to get into the rest of the series. Deeply unsettling and transfixing in equal measures, I enjoyed watching everything deteriorate and change in such a bizarre and beautiful way; it is done with a careful hand, too, the mood throughout constantly teetering on the uneasy. The gradual characterization of our narrator, the biologist, is just fantastic. Despite how reserved and private she is I found myself feeling a strong connection to her (especially as someone very quiet myself), moreso than I did with her movie counterpart.

Any sequence involving the tower

and the crawler

left me very much on edge. The body horror and the just...  subtle wrongness of Area X is everything I look for in a good sci fi horror. Loved it. Can't wait to read again.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Animal death, and Injury/Injury detail

boglord's review

adventurous challenging informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gaslighting, Gun violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Alcohol, and Cancer

gracecrandall's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

THIS BOOK. Holy cow, this book. How is it both a horror and a love story?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, and Suicide